Smile
by WolfWarriorQueen
Summary: One-shot. Rocky strives to get Adrian to smile


A tapping sound on the pet shop window caused a startled Adrian to turn and see Rocky tapping on it, then stopping and pausing to wave at her when she finally noticed him.

It was dark outside, almost nine or ten or so, and Adrian was just beginning to close down the shop for the night. Gloria had already gone home a few hours before and nobody had bothered to visit in those hours, so Adrian decided to shut it down for the night. But that was before Rocky came.

She looked down as he entered the shop and gently closed the door behind him. She put the lizard back in it's tank with the other reptiles and then quickly moved behind the counter when she saw Rocky start to approach her.

"We're closing," she said softly, avoiding his gaze.

He fumbled with the bouncy ball he always had with him and nodded his head, as if agreeing with her. "Yeah, I know, but I, uh, I just came by to, uh, you know, tell you something. I don't know, maybe you'll like it, maybe not, we'll see."

Adrian mentally sighed. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy Rocky's constant visits to the pet shop, but that he always tried to tell her a joke. She didn't know why he always did it—at first she found it a bit odd and tried to avoid him every chance she got—but now it was kind of growing on her, so she allowed him to continue with it.

"So, uh, here I go. Why was six afraid of seven?"

Adrian slightly shrugged and kept her head down, but she answered softly, "I don't know."

"Cause seven was a well known six offender," he said, pausing to glance up at her to see her reaction. He wasn't surprised to see that she wasn't smiling or showing any positive reaction, but he was a little surprised to see that she had shrunk back a little and took a step back.

Rocky shrugged and kind of grimaced, as if he was the one hearing the joke and not Adrian. "Too much? Yeah, I'm sorry. Should've known it wouldn't be good. I kind of made that up on the stop, though, what do you think?"

Adrian took a second to look at him, but then quickly looked away and she heard Rocky sigh.

"Yeah, listen, I'm sorry. That wasn't a very good one." He then looked at her and kind of held up his hands in defense. "I mean, I'm not saying _I'm _a six offender, or anything…or, sex offender, what do you call it? I mean, I'm not saying that either, but you know…I…" Defeated, he kind of trailed off in mid sentence and looked away, hanging his head in embarrassment.

Adrian chuckled at his awkward stammering in a kind way. "I know, Rocky," she said quietly and he looked back at her.

The tiniest smile had spread across her lips and Rocky couldn't help but to smile back. That smile was what he was looking for the entire time. It was the highlight of his day, seeing that smile on her face. When Gazzo's bodyguard was giving him lip, or Mickey or the other boxers were putting him down, he would always count on seeing that smile on Adrian's face, and suddenly every bad thing that happened earlier disappeared. That smile erased all the darkness in his day and replaced it with nothing but light.

"You got a nice smile, you know that?" he said and he saw her lightly shake her head no. "Well, you do. Thing is, I don't see it very often, so that's why I think it's special."

Adrian kind of looked down for a moment and shook her head, more to herself, in doubt and in deep thought. The smile, still frozen on her lips, was slowly beginning to fade. She brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "What's to smile about?" she asked truthfully.

Rocky's smile widened and he began making motions with his hands to explain. "There's plenty to smile about. Now, I know you might not be having the best day, but the little things make it worthwhile, doesn't it? Take me for example, I lost a fight against a guy named Dipper last night, the power in my apartment went out last night, and today some of the idiots at the gym decided to raid my locker. How about that?"

"I'm sorry," Adrian apologized softly.

"Nah, ain't your fault. Listen, it gets better. All that stuff that happened today?" He waved his hand, brushing away the past. "Gone. Cause now I'm standing in front of an attractive girl with the best smile in all of Philly, and that's why I'm smiling. What makes _you_ smile?"

Adrian took a moment to absorb what he was saying. What was the highlight of _her _day? What made everything suddenly seem better and what made the darkest days suddenly become filled with light? What made her smile?

She looked up at Rocky, but instead of looking away, she continued to look. He held her gaze and continued to smile, and her smile only grew from there, because she had finally found the reason behind her smile.

_You._


End file.
